Criminal Law

In R v Strauss, the Ontario Court of Appeal quashed multiple convictions for which the appellant had been sentenced to 11 years in prison. The Court of Appeal differed sharply with the Superior Court’s decision to…

Winston Blackmore and James Oler, former leaders of the religious community Bountiful in southeastern BC, have been convicted of polygamy. Both are members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a sect…

Earlier this month it was revealed that the Canadian government was settling with Omar Khadr, the Canadian citizen who had spent eight years in detention at a US naval base in Cuba known as Guantanamo…

Last week a BC court denied an adjournment of the case raised by the BCCLA and the John Howard’s Society regarding the constitutionality of solitary confinement. The federal government wanted to adjourn the case because…

If the BC government amends the Immediate Roadside Prohibition (“IRP”) scheme to include drug impairment, a constitutional challenge cannot be brought against the proposed anti-drugged-driving federal legislation. BC is unlike many provinces in Canada, because…

The use of solitary confinement has been a hotly debated issue in Canada and abroad, where the conditions and duration of confinement have been the subject of much scrutiny. According to data released by Correctional…

The Supreme Court of Canada has clarified the rules surrounding bail decisions, making it less likely that Canadians living in poverty will be denied bail because they cannot afford a cash deposit. R. v. Antic…

On May 10, 2017 United States’ Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, issued a memo for all federal prosecutors, instituting a new policy on how charges are to be laid and sentencing is to be approached. The…